Re: Monkey Music

[Andre LaFosse <altruist@earthlink.net>]

future perfect wrote:
> 
> For me, it is easier to listen to free music if I know the 'noise' being
> made isn't just a limitation of of the performers involved. In other 
>words,
> I can enjoy Thrakattak because I respect what the muscians involved are
> capable of. 

See, this is an extremely problematic issue for me.  It smacks of what
I'd call the emperor's new clothes syndrome -- the music in quesiton is
judged more on the pedigree of the players than on the actual sound
that's produced.  

At this point in time, I've got very little patience for music that
needs some sort of extra-musical justification in order to have it hold
up -- be it the intellecual conceptualism behind an experimental project
that doesn't hold up on its own, or the straight-ahead pedigree that
gives a jazz player the licence to then play "out" and not be chastized
by his peers, or the talk of "breakbeat science" and "progression"
that's used to pass of the profoundly stiff and boring sounds of a lot
of modern drum & bass.

Not meant as a flame to anyone; maybe I'll see the light later on.  But
I find it awfully frustrating when people find themselves obligated to
give music a certain amount of automatic regard simply by virtue of
associations of any kind.  It's *sound*, for crying out loud!  What does
it *sound* like?!

--Andre